


Walk Off the Residual Pain

by the_gramophone



Category: Social Network (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-04-07
Packaged: 2017-11-03 04:47:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_gramophone/pseuds/the_gramophone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eduardo is the new tour guide at the Cambridge Zoo, where Mark is the darling of the big cat department. Clearly, he's too busy and important to care about this new staffing addition. Obviously.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Walk Off the Residual Pain

**Author's Note:**

> Cleaned up and re-posted from http://tsn-kinkmeme.livejournal.com/4426.html?thread=6135882. Originally posted May 2011. 
> 
> I have a vague knowledge of how zoos work from my own brief time as a minimum wage employee at one. However most of what goes on with animal handlers is based on my imagination. I've tried to keep the information about the animals as accurate as possible; all mistakes are entirely my own.
> 
> July 2014: Super big thanks to the awesome asadeski, who translated this into Chinese! You can take a look here: http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/4140576?show_comments=true&view_full_work=false#comment_12410709

The thing with tigers is, they’re honest. Mark appreciates that about them. They may be vicious, bloodthirsty creatures, but unlike humans, they’re not whispering sweet nothings in your ear as they’re getting the knife ready. 

Take this cub. At ten days old she had to be taken from her mother, who seemed to get off on eating her young. The outcry from the press was considerable – people really seemed to get in a flutter over anything involving baby animals – but when all was said and done, isn’t it easier this way? Sarah wanted to eat her cub, and she made it perfectly clear by starting on Lola’s brother and sister first as appetizers. They reacted to the threat, got Lola out relatively unscathed, and sent her to another zoo to be raised by a team of vets acting as surrogate mothers. Mark was of the opinion that animals’ honesty was the best thing about them. It’s how they saved Lola.

Humans could not be trusted to do the same. They lied, they cheated, they smiled brightly and said pretty things while thinking ugly ones. It’s no wonder, really, he preferred the tiger enclosure. 

 

Mark was in his customary spot in Lola’s pen when he saw him for the first time. The tour group was coming through for its hourly gawk at the cub and her handler. Chubby tourists and bored-looking kids snapped photos while Christy explained the surrogacy program and beside her stood someone new. 

Mark wouldn’t have noticed, really – he tries to ignore the groups, it’s whatever docent is on duty’s job to interact with them – except. 

Lola had been a slightly frustrating mix of rambunctious and skittish today, but right now she was basking in the extra attention. She squirmed out of Mark’s arms where he had been bottle-feeding her and flopped to the ground, rolling onto her side and wiggling back and forth like a dog scratching its back. 

The crowd cooed and the cameras were raised again. Above all the “awws” and comparisons to Raja from Aladdin, he heard a chuckle, rising over the chatter, clear and light. It distracted Mark from his current mission of continuing Lola’s feeding and he looked up. Looking back is a young man that Mark doesn’t recognize, which isn’t surprising. He avoided associating with the other employees. He had a trainee badge on though, so Mark supposed that he’s a new tour guide. 

He stood slightly apart from the crowd, just watching, and he had this long, slim neck supporting a truly ridiculously fluffy head of hair, and huge brown eyes that lit up the first time a toddler waddled over to ask a question. Mark is strongly reminded of an oddly attractive giraffe. The man’s whole demeanor seems to suggest that he’s, like, genuinely pleased to be here, watching Mark wrestle with a tiger cub over a bottle and patiently answering the group’s many questions about the closest ice cream stand or bathroom, or whatever the fuck it is they go on about. 

A flash went off – because apparently all of those signs saying _No Flash Photography Please!_ weren’t enough of a clue or something – and Lola jumped, skittish again. Mark sighed and scooped her up again, murmuring quiet nonsense until she relaxed. 

Through the glass, he could hear a voice – male, not one he knows, so probably this new guy’s – reminding people about the flash photography rule. He didn’t sound annoyed, as Mark would have, but cheerful as he and Christy shepherded the group out to the lion pen. 

 

He put the incident out of his mind for the rest of the day. Someone came to relieve him for lunch, and he dragged himself to the break room to make some mindless conversation, killing time until he can return to the cats. 

Its two days later when the new tour guide makes another appearance. It is one of the rare days that have Mark outside talking to the public instead of inside with the animals, where he belongs, and he had just finished explaining _yet again_ the difference between lions and tigers to an especially stupid group of seventh graders when the tour comes through. Christy is gone this time so Mark supposed the man had graduated whatever passed for their training. 

Mark ignored them and settled against a wall where he could unobtrusively watch Erica with Lola. It’s not like he thought the other handlers were incompetent, it’s just that they weren’t him. 

He snapped out of his staring when he realized the guide was talking about him. “Remember, no flash photography as Lola is still a little skittish around humans and if you have any questions, feel free to ask our docent on duty.” A hand was gestured towards him and Mark tried to look friendly, or at least not critical and judgmental. 

With this the man walked over to him and stuck out a hand. “Hello, I don’t think we’ve met,” he said. Mark paused, his mind running through all the reasons why this man could be talking to him, and returned the shake. The man grinned, blinding and brilliant. “My name’s Eduardo, I’m a new guide here.”

“I’m Mark Zuckerberg.”

 

“Mark Zuckerberg?” 

Chris’ voice was more than a little incredulous, and loud enough to make Eduardo look up from the salad he had packed.  
“The docent on duty was Zuckerberg? And he – he, like, talked to you?” 

Eduardo frowned. “Yeah. But only for a minute. Why does this matter?”

“Mark Zuckerberg? Dustin’s friend? Curly-haired? Anti-social type?”

“Okay, I don’t think he’s anti-social,” Eduardo protested. “He just doesn’t seem to like kids. And who’s Dustin? I don’t think I’ve met him.”

Chris choked on a cookie. 

While Eduardo was pounding his back, Christy slid into a chair across the table from them. “Oh my God, that last group was pure torture,” she groaned, leaning forward to rest her head on the table. “Please leave me here to die. When I do, you can have my lunch, I won’t need it anymore.” 

Chris reached over and a tiny hand slapped his wrist, hard. “I’m not dead yet!” she said accusingly, lifting her head enough to glare in his direction before letting her head fall again. “How were your mornings?”

Chris grinned as he stole a cookie from Christy’s bag. “Eduardo made a new friend today.”

“Well, that’s very nice for him, it’s always important to have good interpersonal relationships and I hope you know that this doesn’t mean you’re being replaced in any way- "

“Oh, I don’t think Mark could ever replace me.”

Christy snapped her head up so fast Eduardo heard a popping noise, which she ignored. “Zuckerberg?” she asked, with more than a little awe. “How?”

“I don’t understand what the big deal is,” he complained. It was beginning to wig him out a little, this weird hero worship thing they had going for Mark. “I just introduced myself and we talked for a minute.”

Christy blinked. “You … introduced yourself. To Mark.”

Eduardo stared at them, slowly chewing his salad. He refused to participate in this conversation again until they returned to the sane, normal people he had known a day ago. 

Chris sighed, his tone laden with condescension. “The big deal is, my sweetly oblivious friend, that Mark Zuckerberg is kind of … how do I put it… supporting the entire zoo with his tiger research?”

Christy snorted. “Also he’s a bastard. Everyone hates him. And he hates everyone. He’s too good for us commoners.” She narrowed her eyes, considering. “Except you, apparently. I wonder why that was.”

Eduardo blinked. His salad suddenly tasted like paper. 

 

He’d seemed relatively normal at the time. 

“Nice to meet you, Mark. Have you been working here long?”

The man looking back at him smirked and shook his head. “Just over a year. I transferred from the Jersualem Biblical Zoo when they sent Rachel here to be bred.”

“You lived in Jerusalem?” 

“Obviously.” His bright blue eyes glinted with amusement at Eduardo’s blunder, and Eduardo found himself blushing. 

“Yeah, that was, uh, a bit of a stupid question, wasn’t it?” He chuckled self-deprecatingly, and Mark grinned. 

“It’s okay. It was also by no means the worst thing I will hear today. When did you move from Brazil?” Eduardo stared at him and he rolled his eyes. “Your accent.”

“Oh! Right. Um, when I was ten. We still vacation there sometimes, though, visit some family, you know…” He found himself rambling a little inanely, but Mark was nodding. 

“I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil. They have some great big cat reserves I’d like to work with.” 

“Really?”

And he was off. Suddenly Eduardo was the one nodding as Mark expounded on the pros and cons of this institution over this one and their breeding programs and the wild jaguar population, and he understood very little of what was being said, but Mark spoke with an enthusiasm Eduardo found infectious. Mark’s face lit, his entire demeanor transformed. He was gesturing wildly and, seemingly without realizing, a smile had broken out over his face as he was explaining how they were integrating Lola into their tiger family here. 

Eduardo tried to remember the last time he felt this passionate about anything, and felt a little small when he realized he couldn’t. 

A red-faced woman wearing an oversized straw hat interrupted to ask Mark about tigers’ natural climates, and his face smoothed, dropping the fire that had been so striking just a moment before. He spoke evenly, slowly, perhaps a touch patronizingly, and Eduardo took this as his cue to step away, waving as he did. 

Now, as Eduardo put his Tupperware container back in his locker, he couldn’t help but remember the look on Mark’s face as he described his tigers, eyes bright, normally pale face flush with excitement, and he felt a shiver wrack his body. 

“Fuck,” he muttered, banging his head lightly against the wall. 

 

Mark stood in the corner of the tiger exhibit, hands deep in his pockets, doing his best to blend with the wall. After the fourth time an angry parent had yelled at him for doing his job, it wasn’t his fault they had stupid children, he had retreated to hide and keep a discreet eye on Lola. He looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to him, and then took out his phone to text his roommate. 

_fuck you for being sick_

It was less than a minute before Dustin replied. 

_ur concern is touching my love. now stop txtng & go make a kid cry _

Mark scowled and shoved his phone back into his khakis. This was ridiculous. Talking to the guests was for people who weren’t intelligent enough to have better things to do, like Dustin. 

And only one kid had cried today, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t even completely his fault. She had looked a little dehydrated, if you asked Mark. Probably should have been at the food court, getting something to drink, instead of here, wasting everyone’s time and getting sick. 

Mark checked his watch. One hour to go and he would be free from this hell. It was with this happy thought, of course, that the tour came through. 

God, he hated tours. 

The crowd swarmed Lola’s window and Mark drifted closer. Erica appeared to have the situation well in hand, however, and he was about to return to his hiding spot when he saw Eduardo out of the corner of his eye and abruptly turned to walk towards him. 

Eduardo brightened as he approached, this big, shit-eating grin like talking to a cranky, dysfunctional tiger researcher was the highlight of his day or something. 

“Mark,” he said, leaning against a display about tiger extinction. “Long day? You look exhausted.”

Mark shrugged. “I don’t really like … this. You know. With the guests. I’d rather be in there.” He jerked his head towards the enclosure and Eduardo nodded. 

“I figured.”

“What?”

“That you don’t like doing this. You’re a, uh, very expressive person, you know that? When you’re in with Lola” - Eduardo leaned forward, earnest now – “you’re so focused. Its like nothing I’ve ever seen, the passion you have.” He chuckled self-deprecatingly. “Now I sound insane. Or like a stalker.”

Mark raised an eyebrow. “Yes, but a stalker would have known how impressive I was before introductions.”

Eduardo blushed. “Maybe I’m just not a very good stalker then.” 

Mark laughed, and someone tapped him on the shoulder. 

Behind him stood two blond monsters, with a shorter, curly-haired man in the middle, all dressed in impeccable suits that seemed laughably out of place in a zoo. The shorter man smiled toothily and clapped Mark on the back, leaving his hand possessively curled around Mark’s thin shoulder.

Eduardo hated him. 

“Mark! My main man! I was just taking the Winklevosses around, showing them the ropes. You heard, of course, that they’re interning under their father for the summer?”

Mark nodded silently, face blank. Eduardo shifted uneasily, feeling a little out of place, and he tried to remember where he had heard the name before. 

The monster on the left spoke. “How are you liking it here, Mark? Everything to your satisfaction?”

Mark nodded again and Eduardo remembered. The Winklevii, of course. Their daddy was the major shareholder here and they had had free rein in the zoo for as long as the town of Cambridge could remember. When they turned eighteen the cops raided their after-prom party that they had held in the reptile house. 

Eduardo thought he maybe hated them too. 

Which made this smug little man Sean Parker, head of Human Resources, and chief Winklevoss bitch. He had been wiping up their messes and keeping their image sparkly despite his own rather shitty personal life for as long as Cameron and Tyler had been fucking up. 

It was then that it occurred to Eduardo he was just a tour guide and most likely was not meant to be privy to this conversation. He murmured a quiet “Excuse me” that went unheard and slipped away¸ as the monster on the right began to speak again. 

“So Mark, Sean’s was just saying that San Diego’s been wooing our best guy. I can’t say I like the sound of that. Call us spoiled, but we’ve grown accustomed to being the best.”

Mark tore his eyes away from Eduardo’s retreating figure. “Well, then I guess it’s a good thing that no one bothers to tell you every time your best guy gets an offer or else your massive hearts may not be able to take it. To be clear, I have every intention of staying; not because I give two shits about our ranking or what you want, but because my tigers are here, my research is here, and I’m not going to abandon my work just because someone offers me a little more money. I don’t expect you to understand. Excuse me.” 

He turned to leave, noting with some disappointment that the tour group had already left, a little sooner than was normal. 

 

Eduardo sat in a corner of the penguin house, legs curled under him on the bench, carefully nibbling on a peanut butter sandwich. It had been a couple of days since he had started taking his lunch with the penguins instead of the employee break room. It’s not like he didn’t like his co-workers – he did, a lot. But he was with them _all day_. And he fucking lived with Chris, for God’s sake. He had really started to crave some time alone to just sit and think and eat a sandwich without having to smile and make polite chitchat and be who people needed him to be. 

He took another bite. It was a bit lonely, though, eating by himself. Not that he was going to admit it. He was making a lifestyle change, and it was good for him, and that was that. 

“Eduardo?”

Mark walked up, cup of coffee in his hand. He looked more tired than normal today and his hair was mussed as if he had been pulling at it. Eduardo ignored the little jump in his stomach when he saw him. His sandwich had probably gone funny from sitting in his cubby all morning. 

“Hey,” he said easily, smiling. “What are you doing here?” 

Mark held up his cup. “The good coffee stand is outside. I thought I’d drink it inside, in the air conditioning.” He sat down and Eduardo squinted at him. 

“This isn’t your lunch?”

Mark shrugged noncommittally, taking a long sip.

Eduardo rolled his eyes, picked up the untouched half of his sandwich and shoved it under Mark’s nose. 

“Eat it,” he said sternly. “You work with dangerous animals all day, you should be well-nourished.”

Mark looked at the sandwich dangling perilously close to his nose, and at Eduardo’s very determined face before sighing and accepting it. 

“I am well-nourished,” he said petulantly, mouth full of food. “And they’re only dangerous if you’re an idiot and don’t treat them with the proper respect.”

Eduardo chuckled and patted him on the arm. “I know, Mark.”

 

Without discussion, a routine formed. Eduardo began bringing enough for his lunch to be split in half, and Mark (when he remembered) brought coffee. 

If Mark had been an introspective sort of person, he might have thought their relationship a little odd. He didn’t make friends, not easily. If his arrogance didn’t scare potential companions away, his complete devotion to his work and sarcastic sense of humor did the job. Eduardo, however, seemed to take it all in stride, laughing indulgently when Mark said something particularly offensive and asking him thoughtful, detailed questions about his work. 

Mark might have thought it was too easy, for someone to simply accept all of his little eccentricities and ask for more, as if he could never get enough of Mark, except Mark wasn’t introspective and he didn’t wonder about it. Eduardo liked to share his lunch with him and talk to him and was pleasant to be around. He wouldn’t question it. 

When Dustin finally dragged his ass off their couch and came back to work, Mark wished he had caught the plague and died. 

Two minutes into their lunch break, his phone buzzed. _im in the break room where r u????_

Mark decided he could ignore that and accepted a cheese quesadilla from Eduardo. 

A few minutes later: _maarrrrrrkkkkk_

_mmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrkkkkk_

_you know you cant eat in the tiger cage rite????_

_they will eat you!!!!_

_im worried about u so im gonna come find u!!_

_here i come!_

Mark whimpered and put his head in his hands. “I think I’m getting a migraine,” he said. “Where’s my coffee?”

Eduardo put the cup in his hands. “Who are the texts from?”

“My roommate. I forgot how obnoxious he could be at full health. I should warn you, he’s trying to find us right now, so give it a minute or – "

“Mark!” Dustin bounced in, red hair flapping and eyes wide with excitement. “I found you, Marky-Mark! Record time too! You shouldn’t have bothered, really, I was a beast at hide and go seek in grade school- " He stopped at the sight of Eduardo, calmly munching on his quesadilla, and broke into a wide grin. “Mark! You made a new friend!” 

“Oh, God,” Mark muttered, as Dustin fluttered around, hugging first him, then Eduardo, then him again, still squawking. 

“I can’t believe this. I’m gone for a few days and you learned to socialize! Maybe the wizard will give you a heart!” 

Eduardo snorted and Mark glared at him. “Eduardo, this is Dustin. Dustin, this is Eduardo.”

“Ed-uard-o,” Dustin said the name slowly, rolling the syllables over his tongue before sticking his hand out enthusiastically and hitting Eduardo in the armpit. “Nice to meet you! I’m sorry you had to meet Mark first, I really do make the better first impression, but what can you do?”

“Yes,” Mark said, “what can one do?” 

Dustin turned his back to Mark and crossed his arms, peering at Eduardo somberly. “So Eduardo,” he said, “what do you do?”

“Dustin – " Mark said exasperatedly. 

“It’s okay, Mark,” Eduardo laughed. “I’m a tour guide.”

Dustin turned a little pink. “Really?” he asked in a strange voice. “That’s good work. Good, noble work, that is.”

“Yes, they’re indispensable,” Mark said. 

“Shush and eat your food,” Dustin told him firmly before focusing on Eduardo again. “Now, Eduardo. I assume your intentions towards Mark are honorable?”

Mark jumped up from the bench and Dustin yelped and ducked behind Eduardo. 

“I’ll hurt the hostage!” he yelled. 

“Would you shut up, we’re in a public area,” Eduardo hissed, glancing around to make sure there were no families nearby. 

Dustin pouted. “Don’t spoil the fun, Eduardo.”

Mark used the distraction to pounce and caught Dustin in a headlock. “Say you’re sorry for being rude,” he said calmly.

“I could get out of this if I wanted to, you know,” Dustin’s voice came from Mark’s armpit. 

Mark grabbed Dustin’s ear and twisted, eliciting a high-pitched squeal that had many of the penguins jump into the water. 

“Fine! God, I’m sorry!”

Mark let him go, patting him on the head. “Good boy.”

Dustin sulked for a moment, scuffing his shoe against the pavement before brightening again. “Mark!” Dustin exclaimed, hopping around in a strange little pirouette. “We should invite Eduardo to the party!” 

“What party?” Eduardo asked curiously. He was not, he told himself, concerned that Mark had never told him about a party. They weren’t that good of friends yet. Obviously. 

“The mythical party in Dustin’s head,” Mark said firmly, “because as we already discussed, at length, there will be no other sort of party.”

“Mark’s birthday party! It is on Friday and it will be excellent. There will be cake and alcohol and women. You can bring friends if you want, especially if they are women, eh, Mark?” He elbowed Mark jovially, who scowled. 

 

After his shift ended Eduardo approached Chris in the break room. 

“Hey,” he said, leaning against Chris’s locker. “Do you want to go to a party with me on Friday?”

Chris wrinkled his nose, considering. “Whose hosting?”

“Zuckerberg and Moscovitz. It’s for Mark’s birthday.”

Chris raised a knowing eyebrow at him and smirked. 

Christy popped her head over from the other side of Chris. “You’re going? To Dustin’s thing?”

Eduardo frowned. “I think it’s more for Mark, but yeah.”

She smiled winningly. “Can I tag along?”

“Um, sure. I didn’t realize you were friends.”

Her smile changed to something more predatory. “Please, Eduardo. See you tomorrow!” With that she slammed her locker shut and sauntered away. 

Eduardo remembered Dustin had said “especially if they are women,” and the shove he’d given Mark and he felt sick. He shook his head a little – _not yours, not yours,_ he chanted silently – and turned to Chris, who was frowning at his backpack, half un-zipped and forgotten. 

“Chris? Are you coming?”

Chris paused, and his eyes snapped back into focus. “Yeah,” he said slowly and he gave a little smile. “Yeah, why not?”

 

“This, as you can see, is our famous tiger enclosure, where our surrogacy program has really been making headlines. I’m sure you’ve read about the work being done here, and I think we can all agree it’s pure genius. Of course we have the hard work and vision of Mark Zuckerberg, our newest steal from Jerusalem, to thank, and whose work has really been invaluable. You’ll find him in Enclosure B with our newest cub – "

Sean stopped his spiel and the group shifted awkwardly. Middle-aged, suit-clad businessmen, their interest in big cats was minimal at best, as long as the money kept coming. But their investments were making this business run, so they politely nodded, save one in the back. 

“And where is Mr. Zuckerberg now?” 

Sean laughed. “Well, even animal handlers need to eat lunch, Mr. Thiel. Why don’t we keep moving to our own lunch in the Australia pavilion, hm?”

Ten minutes later, Sean was back, and tapping on the glass for Erica to come out. 

“What? I was in the middle of a feeding,” she said impatiently. 

“Where the hell is Zuckerberg? He’s the reason people invest; they want to see him working his magic.”

Erica shrugged, eerily reminiscent of the person in question. “He’s been taking longer lunch breaks recently, with Eduardo.”

“You don’t mind?”

She shrugged again. “He’s coming back actually fed, and considerably less bitchy than he used to be. I can cover a few extra minutes.”

Sean left then, thoughts spinning quickly in his head. 

 

“No.”

“I don’t understand why not!”

“Because I’m busy and I don’t care. And despite your claims that this party is for me, I still intend to have as little to do with it as possible. I’m not even sure I’ll get off work in time.”

Dustin squinted suspiciously at him. “You don’t think you’ll be off work in time to get to a party that’s starting at eleven?”

“Well, believe it or not, animals still exist when we aren’t around to stare at them.”

“Fine,” Dustin huffed. “Chocolate it is then, and if you dilly-dally too long and don’t get a piece, too bad for you.”

“I’m a grown adult – "

“So what’s up with Eduardo?” Dustin interrupted, leaning forward to rest his elbows on top of a pile of precariously stacked papers and tilting his head. 

“Fuck off. I’m working.”

Dustin leaned forward even farther, getting dangerously close to the bubble of personal space that Mark liked to employ at all times and fluttered his eyelashes. “Mark, why don’t you ever want to share your feelings with me?” he asked sadly. “Mark, I feel like I’m more invested in this relationship than you are. Mark, where do you see us going?”

Mark flicked him off and walked into his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. 

 

Eduardo and Chris had figured that for a party starting at eleven, half an hour away from their place, they would be ready to leave at eleven-thirty. They would get there early enough to actually talk to Mark and Dustin before they were all too drunk to speak, but not so early it was embarrassing. It was a good plan. 

Christy was a hiccup. 

They had agreed to pick her up on the way because she asked and they were gentlemen but neither of them had counted on sitting on a couch for twenty minutes while she chattered from the next room, doing God knows what. 

“Fuck,” Chris said in a strange, choked voice when she finally emerged. “Well… fuck.”

“Thank you, Christopher,” Christy smiled, and put a hand on her hip. “Eduardo?” she asked pointedly. 

Eduardo stared at her black fishnets and tiny skirt and found that he couldn’t breathe. As he stared at her, the image of Mark lifting her purple halter top ran through his brain, playing on a loop like an annoying gif he couldn’t escape. 

“I think..” he said slowly, spacing his words so hopefully she and Chris couldn’t hear how much he wanted to light her on fire “… that you are going to break the heart of every man in that party.”

Christy smiled again, triumphantly. 

 

The party was well on its way by the time they made it there. Eduardo was a little surprised by how many people were there – Dustin was friendly enough, but he was aware that Mark’s abrasive personality and condescending manner didn’t make him a lot of friends. The free alcohol seemed to be helping with that.

“I’m gonna – "

“What?” Chris yelled over the thumping music.

He attempted to convey through a series of hand gestures to Chris and Christy that he was going to find Mark. Chris grinned and waved him off. 

They really did have an astonishing number of people crammed into such a little apartment. After looking through all possible rooms – twice – he thought to poke his head into Mark’s bedroom. 

And there, of course, was Mark, hunched over his laptop, frowning and gnawing on a Red Vine. He tapped the Red Vine against his mouth as he grimaced at the screen and Eduardo swallowed hard, forcibly tearing his eyes away from Mark’s flush pink mouth, slightly swollen and utterly perfect looking. 

“Hey,” he said, leaning in the doorway. 

Mark’s head snapped up, eyes fuzzy and unfocused. “Hi,” he said when his eyes landed on Eduardo. 

“Shouldn’t you be out there?” Eduardo asked curiously. “It’s your party.”

Mark shrugged. 

“Well, uh, in that case…” Eduardo quickly walked over to the desk and leaned against it, taking an envelope out of his pocket and placing it over the keyboard of Mark’s Mac. “Happy birthday.”

Mark stared at it, face blank. “You didn’t have to,” he said quietly. 

“I know,” Eduardo said. “I wanted to. It’s – it’s not much.”

Mark rolled his eyes at that and slowly picked it up. It was a plain white envelope, but Mark was staring at it as if it was a bomb. 

“Come on,” Eduardo said, nudging him with his knee. “You know you want to.”

Mark smiled softly. “I guess that’s true.” He sighed, resigned, and pulled out what had to be the most obnoxious card he had ever seen. It was a cacophony of pink, purple, and orange swirls, with glittery animals mixed throughout in neon colors not seen this side of the eighties. His mouth twitched. 

“It was the only one in the store with a tiger on it,” Eduardo explained, smiling widely. “And I thought it would suit you.”

“Thanks. It’ll come in handy because Dustin actually gave me a two for one special on a castration and a lobotomy.”

Eduardo cuffed him in the ear, laughing. “Just open it, jackass.”

Inside lay a Starbucks membership card. 

“It’s prepaid for twenty-five dollars, which should last you about two days,” Eduardo said, ducking his head so he didn’t have to see the look of disappointment on Mark’s face. World-renowned, successful tiger researchers were more than a little hard to shop for, and Eduardo had panicked after spending most of the week desperately trying to think of something brilliant. He thought it was a bit of a cop-out, but he had hoped Mark appreciated the gesture of it. 

“Thanks, Wardo,” Mark said quietly and Eduardo looked up in surprise at his new nickname. Mark carefully set the card up on his desk next to a picture of a pretty girl who looked nearly identical to Mark. He thumbed the edge of the Starbucks card and looked thoughtfully at Eduardo as if he were a puzzle that Mark was on the verge of solving. Eduardo smiled and Mark smiled back and they sat in the dark, smiling at each other in content silence as outside the party raged on.

 

Dustin was a bit drunk. He was not – this was important – he was not very drunk. But he was maybe just a little tiny little bit drunk. He could admit that. 

He stood in the kitchen, watching his party proudly. He could throw a fucking party, man. This party was _awesome_ . People were dancing and drinking and having fun and the cake had been demolished about an hour ago but he was okay with not getting a piece because he was being a Good Host. Fuck yeah. 

“Dustin!” Billy Olson stumbled up to him and slung an arm around his shoulder. “Dustin,” he slurred, “we are out of cups and the alcohol – we need cups to drink the alcohol.”

Dustin straightened. “Right-o! Never fear, my good man! To cups I go!” He snickered at his rhyme and edged through the crowd to the front hall. 

As he rooted around his bedroom for the stash of supplies that he was sure he had here somewhere, his door burst open and a girl fell through, laughing. 

“Shit,” Christy giggled. “Sorry, Dustin.” Her eyes narrowed and she propped herself up against the doorframe, jutting her hip out and straightening her skirt. 

“No worries!” he called from the depths of his closet. “Are you having fun?”

“This is a really cool party, Dustin,” she slurred, attempting a rather shaky toss of her hair. 

Dustin smiled happily, shifting a box of his winter clothes to peer behind. “Thanks! I’m glad so many people could come!” he replied, voice slightly muffled. “Hey, you don’t see a package of cups out there, do you…” He popped his head out to find Christy standing considerably closer than she had been a moment before. 

“Um,” he said intelligently.

“And it’s like, really, really cool of you to do this for Mark,” she said, blinking up at him through heavily mascared eyes. “You’re such a good friend, aren’t you?”

Dustin shifted uncomfortably, taking an uneasy step back. “Um, I guess. To be honest, I mostly wanted to have a party.”

Christy reached out to finger the collar of his shirt, slipping a hand underneath to smooth her hand against his collarbone. “I can understand that,” she whispered.

Dustin wasn’t sure exactly what was happening here but it seemed like it was headed toward bad territory. He wrapped a hand around her wrist to pull her away, and Christy, encouraged by the touch, launched herself at him, wrapping her free arm around his neck and planting sloppy drunk kisses on wherever it seemed she could reach. 

“Ack!” said Dustin. He gently pushed her off. “Christy, thank you very much for your attentions,” he said gently. “It’s very sweet. You are beautiful and smart and so awesome. But I’m afraid that I’m gay.” 

Christy blinked at him. “Are you sure?” she asked accusingly. 

“Very, very sure,” he assured her. 

She pouted, lower lip jutting out as she shakily extracted herself from him. “Oh,” she said sadly.

“Are you okay? Do you need some water or…something?” He wasn’t really sure what to do here. Shit like this didn’t happen very often to him. 

“No,” she shook her head. “I – I have to go.”  
As she stumbled through the door, the light from the party shining into the room, Dustin saw the cups had been sitting on his desk. 

 

Eduardo and Mark, having eventually decided to join the party, sat together on Mark’s ratty sofa, sipping from the bottle of gin they passed back and forth and watching a group of drunk nutritionists argue loudly about the merits of Dumbledore vs. Gandalf. Chris leaned against Eduardo’s legs, trying very hard not to pay attention to them. Being around Eduardo and Mark was a bit like standing near a fire, equal parts painful and mesmerizing.

As Chris watched, Mark leaned over to whisper in Eduardo’s ear as Eduardo chuckled, eyes fond and staring at Mark with something like amazement. Mark pulled a face, drunkenly mocking the nutritionists and Eduardo hid his face in Mark’s shoulder to hide his laughter. Chris rolled his eyes and got off the floor, a bit unsteadily. 

“You okay?” Eduardo asked. 

“Water,” he mumbled and began to push through the crowd. 

The kitchen was empty when he got there, except for a girl crying by the counter and two more patting her hair. As he skirted around them they glared and hustled her away, murmuring in the girl’s ear while she wailed. Chris shook his head. This was why he had avoided these parties in high school. They were loud, and messy and inevitably ended up in disaster. 

Fuck. No cups. He sighed loudly and wondered why the hell he was still here. Eduardo certainly wouldn’t miss him and he sure as hell wasn’t having fun. He should probably just leave. He would leave. 

“Chris! Hi!” Dustin hurried over, holding two large bags of plastic red cups. “You weren’t waiting long to drink something, were you?” he asked anxiously. “I couldn’t find cups for a while – "

Chris shook his head. “Its fine, Dustin.” He grabbed a cup and filled it with water. 

“Oh! Hey! Let me get you some ice!” Dustin made a grab for the already full cup and Chris shook his head again, stepping to the side to stand beside the counter. 

“No, it’s okay, really. This is fine. This is perfect.”

“No, let me,” Dustin insisted, following and this time when he made a grab, there was nowhere for Chris to go. 

Dustin lurched forward and snatched the cup out of his hands, the momentum carrying him forward and the water spilling over Chris’ shirt and the tile floor. “Got it,” he said weakly. 

Dustin stared at his hands, a pink flush spreading over his face. Chris wondered dazedly if he could count Dustin’s freckles up this close. Chris’ heart stuttered and he tried to remember how to arrange his face into a smile because Dustin looked really worried and it was hurting his stomach to see him like that. “Dustin,” he said quietly. 

Dustin glanced up through his eyelashes. “Yeah?”

Through no conscious decision of his own, Chris leaned forward and slid an arm around Dustin’s neck, tangling his hand in the hair at the base of Dustin’s neck. “Its okay,” he said.

Dustin tilted his head, and his eyes softened, the corner of his mouth twitching into a small smile. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “Okay.” 

In one fluid movement he tossed the cup into the sink and wrapped his hands around the back of Chris’ head, burying his hands in his gorgeous blond hair, mirroring the position Chris was in. 

“Okay,” he said again. 

“Yeah,” breathed Chris. 

 

Mark shifted and looked up at Eduardo. He was laughing, watching the same drunk nutritionists dueling with their cell phones, making over-exaggerated light saber noises with each parry. Mark wasn’t sure when, but at some point Eduardo had put his arm around him. He leaned his head back and let it rest on his arm, closing his eyes. 

“Mark?”

Eduardo was looking at him with those ridiculous, unfair eyes of his and Mark turned, just a little, without lifting his head. He stared at his face, his stupid face and wondered idly if he lifted a hand to trace the contours of Eduardo’s cheeks, if Eduardo would still look at him like that. If he would move back a little, and tell Mark that he had had too much to drink. Or if he would – 

Mark couldn’t finish that thought, not right now, not with Eduardo still staring at him like that. 

“Wardo,” he said awkwardly. “Um, Wardo, do you think – "

“Eduardo!” Christy teetered up, sniffling and mascara running down her face. Mark was fairly certain she had been crying, but so had a lot of people in the world, and right now he kind of just wanted her to fuck off. 

“Christy,” Eduardo said, leaning forward, disentangling himself from Mark to grab her hands before she fell over. “What’s wrong?”

Christy shot a pointed glance at Mark. 

“I’m going to get something to drink,” he announced and scooted himself off the couch. 

When he entered the kitchen, he noticed a large puddle of water on the floor. “I could be getting laid,” he muttered, bending down with a paper towel to wipe it up. “Probably. Maybe. But no, cleaning up other assholes’ messes is good too. I like this.”

“Talking to yourself again, Zuckerberg?”

Mark straightened to find Sean standing in the doorway. “Only intelligent conversation left,” he said mildly as he threw the paper towel into the trash. “Grab me a beer from the fridge, will you?”

Sean handed it to him and they stepped out to stand on the edge of the living room, observing the party. Two girls were shrilly arguing over the iPod stereo, a game of strip poker had broken out, and the nutritionists were now taking shots of a gift shop girl’s belly. In the corner Eduardo had his arms around Christy, his face buried in her hair. 

Mark’s face burned as a roaring filled his ears. Scowling, he downed half his beer while across the apartment Christy drew her head back to whisper in Eduardo’s ear. He nodded earnestly, smiling gently and rubbing circles on her back. 

“That’s your friend, right? Tour guide? Eddy something?” Sean asked, taking a swig. 

“Eduardo Saverin,” Mark corrected him automatically, eyes still on the rather grotesque display across the room. Eduardo poked Christy’s nose and she giggled, running a finger under her eyes and lucking her head under Eduardo’s chin. 

“Right. Right! I remember reading his application. Christy gave him a glowing recommendation.”

“Really.”

“Oh, yeah. There’s some sort of personal connection there. They’ve known each other for years. Well, you must’ve noticed how close they are around the zoo.”

Mark nodded absently as Eduardo leaned forward and asked Christy something, her head shaking no before he even finished. He nodded seriously and took her hand, running his other through her hair to rest on her shoulder. Mark watched, feeling creepy and voyeuristic and not really giving a fuck as Eduardo led her through the crowd to the back patio, out of sight.

“Interesting,” he said shakily, and took a long gulp of his beer. When he lowered his bottle, he noticed how Sean’s eyes were fixed on the hole in his t-shirt above his collarbone. 

“So, Mark,” Sean said as he took a sip of beer and gave him a cocky grin. Mark thought maybe he didn’t understand anything anymore, but Sean was suddenly in his space, leaning slowly around him to set his bottle on the ledge behind them. “Do you want to get out of here? Maybe get a drink?”

Mark could have said that they were already drinking. He could have said that this was his party, at his apartment. He could have said that he wanted to be up early. He considered it. Despite what Erica and Dustin frequently told him, he wasn’t a complete idiot at basic social interactions. He knew what was happening. This he got. 

Mark looked at Sean, still staring at him with his eyebrows raised, waiting patiently, and he looked at the door outside. He thought of Eduardo, tangled up in Christy, and of all the people who had ever walked away from him, and he thought about Lola, whose own mother tried to eat her and was now perfectly fine. 

“Yeah,” said Mark and they walked out together. 

 

Eduardo woke up Saturday morning to a pounding in his head and a shrill beeping noise. He whimpered and tried to smother himself with a pillow, but the beeping was soon replaced with the sound of Britney Spears crooning and shrieking and he gave up, getting out of bed to hunt for his phone in his pants. 

It could be important, he reasoned. Mark would never call so early on a Saturday if it wasn’t.

“’lo?” he croaked when he finally managed to find his phone. 

“Good morning, sunshine!” Dustin’s cheery voice felt like it was tearing through Eduardo’s head and he groaned. 

“I shouldn’t have answered,” he grumbled, cradling his head in his hands. 

“So, _Wardo_ ,” and Eduardo could hear Dustin’s smirk through the phone and wanted to punch him, “you sound tired. I gotta say, I wasn’t really expecting you to answer.”

“Then why the fuck did you call and wake me up?” Eduardo growled. 

There was a pause, and Eduardo knew that Dustin was pouting. “No need to be snappy. My God, I’d think you’d be a bit peppier, considering the joy - "

“Dustin, for the love of God, get to the point.”

“I wanted to let Mark know that he left his phone here.”

Eduardo blinked. “Mark isn’t here,” he said, desperately trying to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach. 

Dustin laughed delightedly. “No need to be coy, kiddo! To be honest, I’m a little proud. Mark hasn’t been out all night since the zoo started enforcing their forty hour work week. And now here he is! Out all night doing god knows what with we know who!”

Eduardo felt bile rising in his throat and he was suddenly irrationally angry with Dustin. “Dustin! He’s not fucking here! It’s not my job to look after Mark Zuckerberg, okay? If he pulled an all-nighter” – Eduardo choked a little, which he manfully ignored – “then it wasn’t with me!”

There was a long silence. “Oh. Ah. Huh. Got it. Sorry for bothering you, Eduardo. I didn’t mean to – "

“Dustin! What the hell are you doing?!” 

As if this conversation hadn’t been excruciatingly uncomfortable enough, Eduardo was a little horrified to hear Chris’ voice shouting in the background. 

“This is a lot of information to give my brain in two minutes,” he moaned, cradling his head again. “Listen, Dustin, I have to go… drown myself in the shower or something. Make sure Chris eats a good breakfast or he’ll get snippy.” He quickly hung up and fell back into bed. After staring at his ceiling for an hour he pulled himself up again and dragged himself into the shower, where he tried to wash away everything about the previous night.

Eduardo spent the weekend quietly, catching up on e-mails and sleeping. He did his best to not think about the zoo, or Mark, or anything that could have happened after he took Christy home from the party. 

He didn’t do very well, but he congratulated himself on the effort. 

On Monday morning, he tore through the parking lot, five minutes before he needed to punch in. Normally he liked to be at least fifteen minutes early, but the thought of coming into work made him feel nauseous, so he decided to kill time by stopping by a Dunkin Donuts for some coffee. 

He punched in with exactly one minute to spare and sighed, running a hand through his hair. What a fucking start to his day. 

After the morning meeting, during which he studiously avoided making eye contact with Chris, and Christy appeared to be avoiding both of them, he bolted out to pick up his first group. 

“Eduardo! Hey, hold on a sec!” Eduardo turned to see Chris jogging over. 

“The prodigal roommate,” he said, smiling a little. He was genuinely happy for Chris and Dustin, no matter how shitty he felt at the moment, and he was determined to play nice. 

Chris blushed, the pink heating his face and providing a brilliant contrast with his pale hair. “Yeah, about that,” and it was like he physically could not stop himself from smiling, although he had told himself quite sternly that they were not going to rub their happiness in Eduardo’s face, “are you okay? I’m sorry I wasn’t home more this weekend.”

Eduardo raised an eyebrow at him. “It’s fine, really, Chris. _I’m_ fine. And I’m glad that you weren’t home more; it gave me a chance to catch up on Dance Moms without you throwing things at me.”

Chris looked at him searchingly, biting his lip as he wrinkled his nose. “You know,” he said hesitantly, “I actually think he spent most of the weekend at the zoo.”

Eduardo shrugged. “That’s really none of my business. Although it will be the union’s if they find out he’s working over hours again.”

“Eduardo- "

“Look, I need to go. My first group is in five minutes. Thanks for the talk, but seriously. I don’t care.”

As Eduardo walked away he tried not to process the fact that Chris just admitted Mark was gone all weekend. 

 

Eduardo was on his fifth tour of the morning when he saw it. 

Mark had been in the enclosure with Lola all morning, which had been a relief. The first time he came through, Mark had looked up and when their eyes met his face lit briefly and then closed abruptly, scowling and turning away so quickly that Eduardo wondered if he imagined it. It was probably a combination of sun exposure and a raging sexual frustration slowly driving him insane.

After that, he kept the tours as professional as possible, speaking in a flat voice about the surrogacy program and allowing them one minute to coo over the tiger before hurrying them through. 

On his last tour before lunch, Eduardo was finishing his spiel when a movement in the enclosure caught his eye. Sean Parker stood in the doorway, smiling indulgently down at Mark on the floor and saying something with a lot of hand gestures. Mark was laughing as he looked up at him with an expression that Dustin would probably call “doe-eyed.”

Eduardo preferred “moronic”. 

“Alright, well, if you’re finished here, I believe there’s a feeding at the elephants in just five minutes. Have any of you seen baby Beko yet? He turned four months last week and he’s adorable! Let’s try and make that, shall we?” He shooed his group out and most definitely did not look back. 

As Mark watched him walk away, he wondered if Eduardo was feeling ill. He had been acting oddly all morning. As Sean’s story – long and tiresome and self-important – washed unheard over his ears, he decided that he would ask at lunch. It seemed like the sort of thing a good friend would do, at least according to all of Dustin’s bitching in the many ways that Mark did not measure up. 

And he was determined to be a friend. Eduardo’s questionable sexual choices wouldn’t turn him away, even if he did feel a little ache inside, even now, just thinking about how Eduardo had left him without a second thought. He understood, he supposed. Christy was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met, and he could barely compare to ordinary human beings. He had hoped that maybe Eduardo would learn to appreciate his intelligence. He’d thought that their daily lunches meant that he could just maybe hope, just a little, that one day Eduardo could see past all his shit and try to feel the same. Apparently he was wrong. 

When lunchtime came around, Eduardo sat down in the break room. He had started towards the penguin enclosure, but the thought of Mark’s indifference was too hard to face. 

Chris clapped his back as he sat down and he ate in silence. 

Mark sat and drank his coffee, staring unseeing at the penguins in front of him, an untouched second cup on the bench beside him. 

 

At the end of the day, Eduardo walked to the parking lot to find a huddled figure perched on the hood of his car. His feet kicked restlessly at the bumper and next to him sat two Styrofoam cups. 

“Mark,” Eduardo said warily as he approached. 

Mark’s head snapped up at the sound, and Eduardo felt his heart twist in his chest at the small, pained expression before it was replaced by a smaller, insincere smile. 

“Wardo.” Mark handed him a cup. “I thought you might be dragging a little, since you missed lunch.” His eyes were steady and clear and Eduardo had no idea what to make of  
anything so he nodded. 

“Thanks.” He started to the driver’s side of the car. 

“Wardo?” Now Mark’s voice was less sure, and Eduardo hated himself for turning back again, hated Mark for sounding so small, hated Sean Parker for ruining everything, and hated the zoo just for good measure. 

“What is it, Mark?”

Mark nodded at him, something in those few seconds having caused an abrupt change in confidence – pretty fucking ironic, really, considering that’s when it all went to hell for Eduardo – and turned to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Eduardo gritted his teeth and kicked a tire, spilling coffee over his hand and onto his shorts. 

 

Eduardo couldn’t help but wonder what the fuck he was doing here. 

He knew, really. Dustin had become obsessed with the idea of throwing a Memorial Day barbecue after work. Chris, still caught in the honeymoon bliss of their new relationship, had agreed and was behaving as a rather ruthless enabler to Dustin’s crazy schemes. Mark and Eduardo had been awkwardly talking for the past two weeks and so when he had received his bejeweled red, white and blue invitation from Dustin a few days ago, he had no valid reason to say no. 

He had to admit that it was nice seeing Chris so happy. He grinned as he watched Chris chase Dustin around the yard, brandishing with a bottle of mustard threateningly. He hadn’t seen him this relaxed and carefree since their freshman year. 

He was not thinking about why Sean and Mark hadn’t arrived yet. 

“Eduardo!” Dustin yelled, grabbing him by the shoulders and spinning him around. “Save me, my good man, for I dare say our beloved Christopher has lost his mind!”

Chris crept around the picnic table, a manic look in his eyes as he uncapped the bottle. “Now, this will only hurt for a minute,” he said soothingly as Eduardo laughed. 

“Yeah, and after it feels so good you won’t even care,” a loud voice interrupted. Eduardo felt the laughter die in his throat as they turned to find Sean with a casual arm thrown over a stiff and bright red Mark. 

Sean smirked and elbowed Mark. “Right, babe?”

“Fuck off, Sean,” he muttered, shrugging Sean’s arm off and shuffling towards the grill. 

Chris and Dustin looked uneasily at each other and Eduardo rolled his eyes. “I’m going to get a beer,” he announced.

“Awesome! Grab me one too, will you?”

“Hell no.”

Mark decided within moments of arriving that the only way to get through this party was to get trashed. Being a determined and focused worker when he put his mind to something, he was quickly more than halfway there. 

It was easy, really. He found that whenever he saw Eduardo, laughing and talking to someone that was not him, eyes lit like they used to for him, and now probably never would be again, he needed a drink. When he saw Sean, he had to think about this fucked up thing they were doing now, and that would require at least two drinks. Looking at Chris and Dustin being so nauseatingly happy and obnoxious made him want to punch someone, but even while wallowing in his self-pity, he wasn’t heartless enough to want to ruin something that made Dustin happy, and so he consoled himself drinking some more. 

By eleven Mark was totally gone, and Dustin found him puking in bushes on the side of the building. 

“Oh, shit no,” he said, eyes worried, and placed a cool hand on his back, rubbing small circles until the retching subsided. 

“Come on, we need to get you inside. If Chris finds out he will flip a shit.” He picked up Mark’s arm and slung it over his shoulder. “Let’s go, big guy,” he said as he patted Mark’s back sympathetically and they hobbled inside to Chris and Eduardo’s apartment. 

Mark had never been here before. He had wondered about it, of course, especially when Dustin was gone for weekends at a time. Eduardo had told him a little about it, when they were still talking. He knew that it was the bottom in their building and that Chris had had it for a long time, which was why Eduardo’s rent was so low. Wardo and Mark had made tentative plans to have a Star Wars marathon sometime because Wardo had a surround sound system as a graduation present from his sister, but they had never done it.

As Dustin hauled him to a bathroom, he frowned thoughtfully. He had expected it to feel more like Wardo. Instead it was all white walls and wood flooring, IKEA catalogue furniture and clean lines. Mark was filled with the overwhelming desire to break something, or knock one of the overlarge coffee table books to the ground and tear out the pages. The place felt sterile, cleansed of all personality. Mark looked at the blank wall and wanted to scream. He thought there was something incredibly sad about the fact that after their brief acquaintance he felt he knew Wardo better than Wardo’s home did. A home should know you better than anyone. Its where you are at your most honest self. No one keeps secrets at home, in the dark. There’s no one to see besides the walls. 

But, Mark reflected, perhaps this was Eduardo. Who knows? Maybe he liked the blank canvas of the walls. It could be that Eduardo came home from work and felt refreshed by his clean and nicely put-together sofa set. Mark had no way of knowing. It seemed ridiculous to Mark, whose thoughts had been consumed in the past month, but he supposed there was actually quite a bit he didn’t know about Eduardo. With this depressing thought he noticed there were a few photos on a shelf next to a potted fern and he shrugged off Dustin to stumble closer. 

Eduardo and Chris had their arms slung over each other, grinning wide, with matching BC t-shirts and face paint. They – Mark felt a little stab in his gut as he realized this, although for the life of him he couldn’t understand why – they looked young. Chris had none of the lines around his eyes he had now, and Eduardo’s hair was mussed and un-gelled. They were both smiling so infectiously that he felt the urge to smile back. Mark wondered how soon after this was taken they had been told they needed to grow up, how much youth they had left, and how it had happened. 

He wished he could see Wardo like this for himself, but that was as far-off a possibility now as the Winklevii becoming competent co-chairmen. 

At some point Dustin had moved to stand next to him, slipped a hand under his elbow to steady him. “When was this?” he asked. 

“Their freshman year, I think.”

Mark turned to look at Dustin, but the sudden movement was too much for his abused stomach. “Fuck,” he gasped and pushed Dustin out of the way to lurch for the bathroom. 

As he lifted his head out of the toilet bowl it occurred to him that something was wrong. He couldn’t quite remember what it was, but something didn’t make sense to him, and he was Mark Zuckerberg, things should make sense, confusion was for other people, idiots like his colleagues at the zoo and – 

“They’ve known each other that long?” he asked abruptly. 

“Who, Mark?” Dustin called from the hallway. 

Mark huffed, annoyed. “Wardo and Chris,” he snapped. 

“Oh! Yeah, they were roommates.” Dustin’s head popped into the bathroom. “Lost touch after graduation, I think. Eduardo traveled for a while – well, you know – : Mark did not want to admit that he did not know, had no idea what Eduardo had majored in, or even why he was working at the zoo “- and Chris got an internship in New York and they drifted apart. But when Eduardo needed a job, Chris offered to write him a letter and put him up,” Dustin added, proud of his boyfriend’s altruism. 

Mark stared at Dustin, flecks of vomit drying on his face. “I don’t understand,” he said slowly, his mind whirring with the ramifications of Dustin’s information. 

Dustin grimaced and hauled Mark to his feet. “Let’s clean you up a bit, yeah? You’re a fucking mess.” He wet a paper towel and began wiping off Mark’s face, booping Mark’s nose as he did. “You see, Chris’ company was one of the hardest hit by the recession so he was one of the first laid off, and his parents live in the area so – "

“Not about that,” Mark snapped. “Admirable as Chris’ ability to stay economically afloat through a recession is, I don’t give a shit.”

Dustin glared and shoved a toothbrush into Mark’s mouth. Mark choked and grabbed hold before Dustin could commit any more damage in the name of his boyfriend’s honor. “What did you mean then?” he asked nastily. 

“Did they know Christy in college too?”

Dustin stared at Mark, dripping and pathetic, toothbrush hanging out of his mouth and refusing to meet his eyes through the mirror. He couldn’t understand what was going on with Mark recently. Dustin had been positive that Mark had was desperately in love with Eduardo, but then he started hooking up with Sean. Only instead of being happy that he finally had someone and was getting laid on a regular basis, he was pissier than ever. And he still hadn’t stopped talking about Eduardo. 

Dustin thought he should get a medal for living with this every day. 

“No,” he answered slowly. “No, Christy went to school in Sacramento, I think. Why?”

Mark shifted awkwardly, his face impassive again as he spit. “Not important. You can head back, Dustin. I’m going to get some water.”

 

Eduardo nodded politely, smiling, as Bob from the gift shop finished a long story about plush tiger backpacks. 

“They’ve sold out every weekend, I don’t even understand it, but I told Amy, I said, ‘Amy! We are definitely in business’!” he said, puffing his plump chest out. 

Eduardo frowned. “Well, it is the peak season right now. And with the arrival of the new tiger cub, kids are probably caught up in the cute factor. Most likely it’ll drop off again come fall, but with the new giraffe family we’re expected to get in August, that should help.”

Bob looked taken aback. “I suppose. The higher-ups do the ordering, but I’m sure they know their business. But enough shop talk,” he lowered his voice and leaned in chummily, clammy hand grasping Eduardo’s shoulder tightly, “can I get you another drink? I’d hate to see you run dry.” 

“Ah,” Eduardo said. 

Behind him he heard Chris say loudly, “Where the hell is Dustin with the ice?” and he spun around.

“I’ll find him!” he volunteered loudly and scurried away. 

As he stepped onto the patio, a harried Dustin passed holding an ice box and muttering belligerently. Eduardo had learned quickly that it was best not to engage Dustin on the rare occasion that he was feeling wrathful. However, Eduardo didn’t feel ready to return to the party and Bob yet, so he continued his path into the house. 

He sighed as he slipped through the sliding door into the cool darkness of the apartment. If it weren’t his own fucking home he would have left a long time ago. But it was, so he decided to savor these few moments before returning to the drunken mess outside. 

Before he took a few steps, however, he heard a muffled thump coming from deep within the apartment. _Shit,_ he thought angrily as he strode toward the source of the sound. He was willing to put up with a lot for Chris and Dustin, but he did not sign on for drunken party guests having sex in the privacy of _his bedroom._

He stopped short as he entered the room, momentum carrying him into the doorframe. He stumbled back as he massaged his aching forehead and Mark turned, a glass of water sitting on the table next to his bed. 

Eduardo opened his mouth. He didn’t know what to do with this. Mark’s unexpected rejection had hurt, certainly, but he didn’t want to be unfair. It wasn’t like anything remotely official had ever happened between them, and it wasn’t Mark’s fault that Sean had made his move before Eduardo could man up to do it. Sure, Eduardo had been under the impression that maybe his feelings might be reciprocated, but again, that wasn’t Mark’s fault. He had never been anything but a good friend to Eduardo and so he was determined to return the favor. After that first day, he returned to the penguin enclosure and they resumed their lunches together. They ate mostly in silence, but it was still better than any alternative Eduardo could imagine. Those quiet minutes of eating and trying not to stare at Mark’s jawline calmed him enough to return to his lackluster job for the rest of the day. 

Except now Mark was in his bedroom and he wondered how much more he was going to be expected to endure in the name of friendship. He was desperate to say something, anything, but found his mouth was too dry. He coughed into his fist, grabbed Mark’s glass of water and took a sip. “Mark.” That’s good. Much better. Keep going now. Just a few more words, get him out, and then maybe drink the bottle of wine he had stashed in his desk. “What are you doing here?”

Mark bit his lip, shrugged. “I was curious.”

“About my bedroom?” he asked incredulously. 

“The apartment – none of it felt like you. It was all decorated by Chris. I was curious to see if this….” His voice trailed away and Eduardo was entranced by a blush forming around Mark’s ears and the edges of his cheeks. It was different than before, the furious angry blush of someone breaking one of the many rules of personal contact with Mark. Now Mark was breaking one of them himself, and it was clear he wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. 

“You wanted to see my room because you were curious about me,” he said quietly and Mark nodded jerkily, eyes locked on Eduardo’s feet. 

Eduardo sighed and sat down next to Mark. He resolutely kept his eyes ahead, but he could see the curly brown head in his periphery and that alone made his stomach swoop and his heart thud uncontrollably. 

It was ridiculous, honestly. They barely knew each other. 

“Mark,” he said heavily. “We’ve only known each other for a few weeks. You don’t know anything about me.”

Mark shifted awkwardly, knotting his fingers, although when he spoke his voice was soft and sure. “That’s based on the assumption that personal trivia directly corresponds with knowledge of a person’s nature.”

“This is just temporary for me,” Eduardo protested weakly. “I don’t intend to stay, I’m looking at better jobs right now, and if I find something, I’m going to take it.”

He turned slightly to find Mark’s cool gaze fixed on him, intense and focused, sliding over the contours of Eduardo’s face like a map he would need to know later. “Trivia,” he breathed, and leaned in.

Mark kissed fiercely, with none of the gentle give and take Eduardo expected of a first kiss. _But then,_ a very distant part of Eduardo’s brain reminded him, _nothing else about Mark is typical._ Mark cupped the back of Eduardo’s head with both hands and nudged his mouth with his tongue, demanding entrance. When Eduardo gasped, Mark took it, swirling his tongue over Eduardo’s, running it over his teeth and biting down on his lip. 

Eduardo whimpered and broke free to lick a line to Mark’s ear, moving simultaneously under his shirt to press against his bare chest, pushing him flat onto the bed. Mark groaned, eyes fluttering and he reached out with grabby hands to pull Eduardo closer. Grinning, Eduardo straddled Mark’s thin hips. The new angle brushed Mark’s cock tantalizingly against his own and Eduardo moaned, throwing his head back and grinding down against Mark’s weight. Mark whined and his hands scrabbled for purchase on Eduardo’s back, sliding down to rest on the smooth, perfect curve of Eduardo’s ass and arching his back to meet him. Eduardo laughed brokenly, near delirious with the joyful knowledge of Mark’s mouth, and continued his investigation of the cords and veins of Mark’s neck, biting and licking until Mark was near sobbing. 

“Wardo,” he moaned, panting, as he slid a hand upward to tug at the hem of Eduardo’s shirt in a clear demand for permission to take it off. 

The combination of his name and the brief touch of Mark’s hand against his bare back jolted Eduardo back to his senses. The ramifications of what they had just done crashed over Eduardo in a sickening wave, overwhelming and damning, and he leapt back, scrambling off the bed and shuffling backwards until he was pressed against his desk. “Mark,” he said, tiredly. “We can’t do this. It wouldn’t be right.”

Mark sat up slowly, gaze unwavering but distant and cold, as if he knew how this conversation would end already and was now going through the motions until Eduardo caught up. “Really? And why’s that?”

“Because _you have a boyfriend,_ Mark!” Eduardo yelled. He was frustrated by Mark’s icy indifference, and hurt his refusal to admit that this could possibly mean as much to him as it did to Eduardo. By this point, he just wanted Mark to get out so he could eat some ice cream and marathon his favorite episodes of Friends until he could convince himself that Mark wasn’t a lobster, and he would be fine without him. “You made a choice. You don’t get to have both of us.”  
Mark rolled his eyes. “I don’t – "

“I think you should go.”

Mark ran a hand through his hair, ruffling it further and tugged his sweatshirt down. “All right,” he said calmly as he stood. “I see your point.” He walked to the door, calling a “See you later” over his shoulder and this, his casual dismissal of everything that has just passed between them hit Eduardo like a punch, made him want to hit back, crack him however he could. 

“Mark?” As Mark turned in the doorway, Eduardo pretended he didn’t see, for just a moment, a flash of something raw in his eyes, the hopeful expression that appeared and disappeared to quickly to even justify. “Let’s not tell anyone about this. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”

Mark left without another word. 

 

Mark found Sean outside with every intention of confronting him about his lie, calling everything off, and maybe punching him in the face. But as he stood in the yard, surrounded by their colleagues, chattering happily, he felt the full weight of what had just transpired and what he had had taken away from him a second time, and his anger fled his body to be replaced by a bone-deep exhaustion. Sean took one look at his face and said, “Let’s get you out of here,” wrapping an arm around his waist, steering him away from everything he wanted to forget. When they arrived at Sean’s condo, Sean took off Mark’s shoes and belt and deposited him on top of the bed, placing a bucket on the nightstand before leaving the room. 

It’s not what he wanted or even what he thought he might need, but it’s something, and Mark decided that will be enough. 

Mark briefly considered the idea of abandoning their fledgling friendship for safer emotional waters, but he quickly came to the conclusion that, pitiful as it was, he would rather be rejected by Eduardo on a daily basis than never see him at all. And so on Tuesday afternoon, he met Eduardo in the penguin enclosure with two cups of coffee. Eduardo looked up from his furrowed study of a display, surprised, and offered him a small smile and a half of a ham sandwich. Mark shook his head and pulled out a crumpled sandwich of his own. The air as they eat is fragile, tenuous, and interspersed with only the occasional comment on the weather or the zoo attendance that day. Mark thinks he’s glad when he can reasonably escape until five minutes later when he finds himself wishing for the strained silence he left and aching for tomorrow when he can sit next to Eduardo again. 

It’s not perfect. There are days when Mark meets Sean for lunch instead, or when Sean decides to drop by the tiger enclosure to say hello while Eduardo is there. Mark viciously hopes that Eduardo feels awful when this happens, that he will see the stupidity of his actions and regret them the rest of his days. 

He also wishes that Sean stays away more. 

In June it’s announced that Mark’s petition for additional funding for his tiger breeding initiative has been approved. Dustin and Erica hug him and begin talking about the medical improvements they can afford now, Eduardo gives him a polite clap on the shoulder, and Sean says that he’s taking everyone out for drinks after work. 

It’s closing time and Mark was aware that he should be leaving to let the night shift take over, but Lola had been off her feed today and he didn’t like the way her eyes glazed when he held her under a light and _Oh God if she is sick those idiots working tonight will never be able to handle it and what if –_

“Mark?” Eduardo stood in the doorway, already changed and a stark contrast to the hay and feces around him in his dark jeans and crisp button-down. “Are you almost done? Dustin’s gone ahead to get us seats but Sean’s getting impatient.”

“I’m not sure,” Mark muttered absently as Lola pushed the bottle out of her mouth yet again. Mark closed his eyes and tried to calm his racing nerves. 

“Is she okay?” Eduardo asked worriedly and Mark’s heart twisted at the concern in his voice. 

“She’s been acting oddly today,” he said, pushing himself back on the matter at hand. 

“Mark! Man of the hour!” Sean pushed past Eduardo, catching a rib in the process if the small grunt Eduardo let out was any indication. “Why are you still working? We have people for this, come on.” He nudged Mark with his toe, which Mark ignored in favor of running a hand over the fur on Lola’s head and trying the bottle again. 

“I’m not leaving until I know she’s okay,” Mark said stubbornly. 

“Mark,” Sean began, and he stopped to raise an eyebrow at Eduardo, who quickly left, closing the door behind him. “Mark, I understand you’re worried. He’s a valuable little guy, and we need him healthy and happy to keep this project on its feet. But the people taking over are great. Better than! Trust me, everything will be fine. You need to relax,” he said laughingly, and squeezed Mark’s shoulder. “All this stress isn’t good for you. But enough of this! We have a bar full of people waiting to sing your praises and it would be just a little embarrassing if you didn’t come, don’t you think?”

Mark stared at him. “She.”

Sean frowned. “Excuse me?”

“Lola is a she.”

“Really?”

Mark narrowed his eyes. “Yes. Why would someone name a male tiger Lola?”

Sean paused, and put his hands on his hips. He appeared to be attempting to portray an image of strength and dominance, but it was easy to see that he was exasperated. “Mark, that’s not the point.” 

“And you were correct, she is incredibly important, not to the project or the funding or the zoo,” Mark sneered the word, as if the very institution was insulting to him at the moment in the face of the greater good he was trying to accomplish, “but as a living thing and I will not leave her sick and scared, with substandard caregivers. I don’t see why I should give her competent when she has the best.”

Sean pinched his nose, and breathed heavily, ruffling his gelled bangs. “Listen Mark, I don’t know how else to say this, but there will be people at this.”

“Obviously.”

“Important people. The people who gave this to you and can give you more, or take it all away, if they decide. I don’t think it will kill either of you to go and spend an hour to say thank you.”

Mark’s mouth flattened and he ran a soft hand over Lola as he pondered the threat. Several minutes passed before he stood, brushing the dirt from his pants. “I will want to talk to them before I leave,” he said tightly. 

Sean nodded encouragingly. “Okay. Sure. Okay! Just watch, Zuckerberg, a few shots, an hour or two, and you won’t even miss this place!”

 

Mark thought that if he had to spend one more minute talking to a Winklevii he would kill himself. 

No. Wait. There weren’t many minds like his, especially in the field of animal research. 

Better – he would kill them. 

With this cheerful new plan, he tuned back in to catch the end of a story that seemed to involve sandwiches, a crew match, and culminate with having sex with a pair of twins in a bike room. 

“Neat,” Mark said shortly and escaped before either could respond. 

He slid into the booth next to Dustin and took a swig of his beer. “How long have I been here again?”

“Forty minutes,” Dustin replied calmly, stealing his beer back as Chris chuckled. 

“Chafing under the duties of social obligations, Mark?” Mark glared ferociously, which only made Chris and Dustin laugh harder. 

“I shouldn’t even be here,” he muttered petulantly, shoving a handful of peanuts in his mouth. At their confused expressions, he explained, “Lola’s sick. I was going to skip, but Sean said it would offend the investors.”

Chris made a face that Mark couldn’t parse for the life of him and nodded. “How is Sean?” he asked politely. 

Mark shrugged. “Fine.” 

Dustin and Chris exchanged knowing glances and Dustin leaned forward. “Don’t you – "

Mark’s phone buzzed and he leapt to open it. 

_Condition growing worse. Best if you come._

“I’m out,” he said abruptly and shoved away from the booth. 

“Mark!” Dustin called after him. “Mark! Where’re you going?” 

Mark ignored him and kept walking, already dialing for a cab and trying not to imagine what was waiting for him. 

Sean found him several hours later in the lab, cradling a shaking Lola in one hand while he wrote her temperature down with the other. Her fever had dropped two degrees since he’d arrived, but it was still too high. 

“Mark! What the hell?” Sean was angry, drunk, and too close to Lola for comfort. 

“Hold on.” He carefully settled her on the makeshift bed they had set up and turned back. “What do you need?”

“What the fuck was that, Mark? You left your own party for some fucking animal,” Sean’s face was red with rage, spittle flying with every harsh word he threw out. “What was I supposed to say to the investors? Sorry, Mark’s not here, he’s fucked-off to fuck-knows-where just like he always does when you’re around! Who do you think you are?"

Mark rolled his eyes and walked to the counter to prepare Lola’s next dose of antibiotics. 

Outside, Eduardo paused. Dustin had mentioned at the bar that Lola was ill, and when he saw that Mark had left, Eduardo knew immediately where he could be found. The thought of staying and enjoying himself while Mark was alone in a lab, worried sick, was impossible to him. Once he left the bar, he realized he wasn’t sure if their truce meant he could still interrupt Mark at work. He spent an hour driving around Cambridge, arguing with himself, before he finally said, _fuck it,_ and went anyway. 

Right into the middle of an argument, it would seem. He was sure that the right thing to do was leave, but he couldn’t make himself to step away. He told himself that Sean was drunk, and Mark could need help, and leaned against the doorframe so he could hear better. 

“Don’t fucking walk away from me, you little cunt,” Sean growled. “Do you understand how much work I have put into your career, into your little projects? You are nothing without me.”

“Before I came here,” Mark said calmly, focused on Lola, “I accomplished more things than you ever have, Sean, and after I leave – and eventually I will – I will do greater things than you could ever hope to in your wildest dreams of photo spreads and luncheons. I am both helping the world and making a name for myself and while you may be somebody here I can assure you that in the scheme of things, you are nobody. Move.” 

Sean stepped to the side as Mark walked past, holding a syringe. “I wasn’t so worthless when you needed someone to soothe the sting of rejection,” he said nastily. 

“Yes, it’s amazing where alcohol and lies will get you, isn’t it?” Mark said distantly, moving Lola’s fur to find a vein. He glanced up to find Sean shaking with repressed rage, ugly in his rage and white from the effort of staying where he was. “If you’d like the truth, yes, you were conveniently available and did an adequate job helping me forget that Eduardo’s rejection, only that wasn’t what happened at all, was it? I can’t decide if I feel like a whore or not, with you trading sex with my talent. But really, you’re turning into a hindrance more than anything, so you can feel free to leave.”

Sean laughed derisively, the sound echoing cruelly through the empty room. “If you really think that he’ll want you now, you’re high. _Wardo_ doesn’t seem the type to enjoy leftovers.” 

Mark rolled his eyes again and lifted the syringe, patting and stroking Lola at the same time. “Not like you were my first,” he murmured, whispering nonsense words in her ear as he pushed the needle in. 

“It’d explain why you were so godawf - "

There was a thud and Sean’s voice cut off abruptly, followed by more thuds, fast and brutal. Mark finished crooning to Lola, who was closing her eyes, and turned to see Eduardo violently kicking Sean, who had curled in on himself on the floor. 

“Okay,” he said loudly, hurrying over to pull him away. “That’s enough! If he throws up I have to re-sterilize everything and I don’t want to, so let’s leave him be.” Eduardo stepped away with narrow eyes, treading carefully on Sean’s hand. 

“You – are so – fired,” he coughed, wheezing pitifully. 

Eduardo stared down at him contemptuously. “I quit this morning. Get out.” 

Sean slowly uncurled himself and dragged himself up from the floor. Eduardo suspected he was purposely dawdling, and had his suspicions confirmed when Sean spent more than a minute brushing the dust from his trousers. “All right,” Eduardo said finally, and grabbed him by the arm to tug him out the door, slamming it in his face in a very satisfactory way. Eduardo turned to find Mark staring, his laser-focus directed on Eduardo for once and was suddenly very aware that moments ago he interrupted a private conversation to beat the shit out of someone. 

“Uh,” he said weakly. “Hi. Sorry. I just – sorry.” Mark nodded, face still inscrutable and Eduardo searched desperately for a change of subject. “How’s Lola?”

Mark turned suddenly and strode back to the counter to fiddle with some tubes. “She’s better. Her fever was ridiculous earlier; those idiots nearly killed her. I’m looking into replacing all of them. Why are you leaving?”

The subject change took a moment for Eduardo to notice and he struggled to catch up, mind suddenly weary. “I was offered a better job,” he said softly, leaning against the island in the middle of the room. “It’s for a financial company in New York, but they’re sending me to Singapore.”

Mark swung his head around, eyes wide and piercing. “Singapore,” he repeated and looked down at the pen he was clasping tightly in his hand before throwing it on the counter behind him. “Listen, what you did just now, it really wasn’t necessary – "

“Oh,” Eduardo said, embarrassed. “I know. Sure. I’m sorry, I just, I heard him saying all that stuff and I – "

“Wardo,” Mark interrupted. “Shut up. It wasn’t necessary. But thank you.”

Eduardo blushed. “You’re welcome.” 

A silence stretched between them, and Mark turned suddenly to write something in a file, scribbling furiously before snapping it shut and turning back. 

“So when you said that you heard us talking,” he said slowly, eyes fixed on the scale next to Wardo, “what did you hear?”

Eduardo grimaced. He was going to have to admit how long he had been eavesdropping. He didn’t think he could lie anymore to Mark. “I,” he started slowly, and Mark’s hand gripped the counter behind him and it occurred to Eduardo that possibly the past few weeks had sucked for him too. _Fuck it,_ he thought for the second time that night and took a tentative step forward. “I heard you say that Sean made you think I didn’t want you,” he said, reaching forward to wrap a soft hand around the curve of Mark’s neck. He stepped forward again and inhaled, trying to summon the courage for this next bit. “I hope you know that wasn’t true,” he added nervously.

Mark looked up and something in Eduardo’s face must have pleased him, because a wide smile lit across his face and he tipped his forehead against Eduardo’s, nuzzling their noses together. 

They stayed that way for a long time. Eduardo couldn’t have said how long if pressed, only that it wasn’t nearly long enough. All too soon, Mark broke away, a quick kiss on Eduardo’s cheek, that, although brief, still sent his heart souring. “I have to stay with her,” Mark said, looking anxious suddenly. “Nothing can happen – "

“It’s all right,” Eduardo said. “I can wait.” He thought right now that he would have waited forever for whatever Mark wanted to give him. 

“When do you leave?” Mark asked, wrapping his arms around Eduardo’s neck and pressing his face into his shoulder. 

“Four days,” Eduardo replied, running a hand through Mark’s curls. “But I’ll only be gone a month. Then I’ll be at the headquarters in New York.”

Mark pouted into Eduardo’s shirt and shoved him away. “Okay. I have to work, which means you have to go.” 

Eduardo protested for a moment, for form’s sake, bunching his hands in Mark’s glorious curls and breathing him in before letting go. “Go ahead, I’ll see you later.”

Mark stared after him for just a moment before shaking himself and getting back to work. 

 

It was one that afternoon before Mark stumbled back to his apartment. Lola had finally stabilized around nine, but he was reluctant to leave her with anyone else. It wasn’t until Dustin found him dozing off while preparing Lola’s lunch that he was forcibly removed from the premises. 

“I can handle things,” Dustin had insisted stubbornly. “And no one needs you to be eaten by a tiger now, so for God’s sake, just go home.”

Mark hadn’t even been allowed the opportunity to correct Dustin on the “eaten by a tiger” comment before he was shoved in a car with Erica, who had determined he was unfit to drive, and taken home. 

He dropped his bag and sweatshirt on the floor and turned to find Eduardo sitting on the couch, grinning at him. 

“Hello,” Eduardo said pleasantly.

Mark was too busy wondering how much energy he had left and how long it had been since his last shower to respond. 

Eduardo saw his thoughts clear on his face and tsk-ed in disapproval. “None of that,” he said firmly. “You are going to eat something, take a shower, and go to sleep.”

That Mark heard. “None at all?” he asked, a whine creeping into his voice. 

Eduardo shook his head firmly. “No. But be good, and we’ll see,” he added with a sly smile that made Mark’s insides curl. 

Even the promise of sex could not, of course, make this simple. Mark tried to insist that a bag of SunChips was a passable lunch and ended up throwing them at Eduardo’s head.  
Eduardo cajoled and bullied Mark into eating a tuna fish sandwich and an apple, pushed him into the shower, and tucked him into his bed. 

“Sleep well,” he said fondly, smoothing Mark’s curls back over his forehead. Mark grabbed his wrist and tugged at him before he could walk away, sleepily pulling him down. Eduardo smiled, and kicked off his shoes before wrapping his arms around Mark, nuzzling his shoulder. 

“Wardo?” Mark asked sleepily. “Will you still be here when I wake up?”

Eduardo tightened his arms protectively and wondered what had happened to make this beautiful, brilliant boy so afraid. “Of course. I’m not going anywhere.”

**Epilogue**

Mark folded his arms, anxiously chewing his lip and very purposefully not thinking about all the many reasons a plane could not land on time. He noticed that his foot was tapping, flip-flop thwapping loudly against the tile, and stilled it. It gave the impression that he was nervous about something, and he wasn’t, obviously. 

He hadn’t seen Eduardo in two weeks, and a tiny voice reminded him that a lot of things can happen in that amount of time. Their entire relationship, in fact, seemed to consist in increments of two-week couplets. While he had been happy to surprise Eduardo in Singapore while on a visit about a prospective new female for the zoo, he wished they had had longer together. 

Stupid work. Stupid Mark’s job and stupid Eduardo’s job and stupid plane and everyone who always got in the way – 

“Mark!” 

There was Eduardo, pushing his way through the crowd, a small but expensive-looking (“douchey”, Mark had called it) carry-on slung over his shoulder. Mark jumped to his feet and had just taken a step before Eduardo threw his arms around him. 

It was a relief to see that nothing had changed. Eduardo still kissed like he was thankful for every second he got to spend doing it, and he still smelt like peppermint and soap. Mark rested his hands on Eduardo’s shoulders and rested his cheek against Eduardo’s when the time came for oxygen, breathing heavily. 

“I missed you,” he said¸ twisting the lapel of Eduardo’s jacket in his fingers. 

“Me too,” Eduardo smiled. “What do you say we grab my luggage and go get a drink?”

Mark scrunched his face, considering, and Eduardo chuckled. “What do you say we grab your luggage, skip the drink, and go back to my hotel to have sex for the next three days?”

“Mark, we have a meeting with a realtor tomorrow,” Eduardo said sternly. 

“I rescheduled.”

Eduardo grinned, grabbed his hand and started towards the baggage claim. “Well, what do you know, I think my flight’s luggage is being delivered,” he said cheerfully, tugging  
Mark by the wrist. 

Mark trotted behind him, shaking his head at this ridiculous man that he was in love with. 

Eduardo didn’t know that yet. Mark thought it was maybe a little early. But, he thought as he lugged one of two suitcases – black, matching, carefully labeled “Wardo Saverin, New York” – through the airport, he thought, _Soon._

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr at abravelittletoaster!


End file.
